British Council to invest Rs 200mn in Pakistan to empower women, foster youth employment

ISLAMABAD: The British Council will invest Rs 200 million in Pakistan through the Developing Inclusive and Creative Economies (DICE) programme mainly to empower women and girls, foster youth employment and support disabled persons.

According to a statement, the programme will be delivered across five priority countries; Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Indonesia and Brazil as well as the UK.

To address challenges in emerging economies, the British Council programme draws on two of the UK’s key assets; Social Enterprise and the Creative Industries. The Creative Industries alone contribute over £75bn to the UK economy and 1.8 million jobs. As many as 70,000 social enterprises contribute £24bn to the UK economy and sustain over one million jobs.

The British Council will invest Rs 200 million over the next two years to help grow the contribution social and creative enterprises make, nurture the people who run them and the policy which supports them, to the economy.

The key highlights from the DICE programme include the DICE Policy Series which will work towards policy interventions to help young people across the country begin their entrepreneurial journeys. The DICE Fellowship aims to help 600 social and creative entrepreneurs, of which there will be 300 women leaders, develop through a programme delivered by the School of Leadership across 12 cities in Pakistan.

The DICE programme is poised to help the people, institutions and Government of Pakistan work together to develop an inclusive and creative economy in partnership with the UK.